Expand rankings to look better

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📝 Intro

You’re putting together a listicle for your website which ranks yourself against other similar products, to help boost your website’s SEO rankings.

While there are dozens of similar products, you figure with people’s limited attention spans, it probably makes sense to keep your list to a Top 5, comparing yourself (favorably!) against 4 of your competitors.

New research shows that’s not the case - ranking yourself against as many other similar products as possible achieves the best results.

P.S.: For product ratings, being perfect isn’t always the best - research shows extremely high ratings (4.5 out of 5 or higher) make people skeptical and are less effective than ratings between 4 - 4.5 out of 5

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The same position on a longer ranked list improves your standing - and your sales

Topics: Ads | Messaging & Copy
For: Both B2C and B2B
Research date: July 2024
Universities: New York University - Shanghai, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Virginia Tech

📈 Recommendation

Improve your standing in rankings by using or reframing them as a longer ranking (e.g. ranking 4th in a Top 5 shortlisted from 50 entries can be highlighted as 4th out of 50).

Similarly, when you’re making your own listicles or rankings, whether for blog posts, social media, or other marketing materials, build longer lists (e.g. Top 25 instead of Top 10).

People will like your product more, be more likely to choose it and pay more for it.

🎓 Findings

• People are more likely to choose a product, pay more for it, and rate it better when they’re ranked well in a longer (e.g. top 20), compared to a shorter (e.g. top 5) ranking list.

• As part of a series of 10 experiments with 1,172 people across industries including movies, restaurants, and hotels, researchers found that:

  • People were willing to pay 10.9% more for the top-ranked catering company on a Top 20 list vs on a Top 5 list ($143.18 vs $129.06).

  • People rated a Top 3 restaurant 18.4% higher when it was shown on a Top 20 list vs. a Top 5 list.

  • The top 2 movies in an IMDB Top 20 ranking were 31% closer in score (out of ten) than the top 2 movies in a Top 3 ranking.

  • People rated the difference between the Top 5 movie and the Top 1 movie as 44% closer to a Top 20 ranking than a Top 5 ranking. 

  • Eye tracking found that people spent 40.9% more time looking at the upper end of the top-ranked items on a Top 20 list compared to a Top 5 list

• The effect weakens as other factors become involved, like cost differences or availability. For example, a company ranked second in a Top 20 list doesn’t have an advantage over one ranked second in a Top 5 list if the company in the Top 20 list:

  • Has longer wait times

  • Costs more

  • Is less easily available

🧠 Why it works

• We use lists to help us narrow down choices and choose the “best” option, so we judge things based on where they rank on a list. When the items are ranked, it also narrows our focus, making the items that made the cut seem more important, making us like them more and more likely to buy them. 

• Where something is ranked also matters - we judge a difference in position more favorably when an item ranks in the Top 10 on a list because we mentally break long ranked lists into round-number categories - like the Top 10 or Top 25.

• When we look at a longer list (e.g. Top 25 vs. Top 10), the difference between positions (item 4 and item 5) seems less noticeable.

• Seeing more items ranked also makes the top items seem better in comparison (e.g. a product beat 24 others vs beating 9 others), leading to more positive views of the top products.

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✋ Limitations

• There are other factors within rankings that can modify perceptions from this effect. For example, each item in the movie list might have scores on different features (e.g. 1 to 10 for creativity, 1 to 10 for enjoyment, general public vs movie critic scores)

• It’s possible the effect wouldn’t be as strong for higher-value or highly-customized products where people do more research before buying and focus more on their own specific needs.

• Though it was not tested in this study, other research shows that offering too many choices can delay decisions as people feel overwhelmed by the options.

• The length of a longer ranking list likely makes the most impact only when compared to a similar list with clear competitors. For example, a design software ranking well on “My 20 Favorite Apps” might not be as impactful as topping a ranking of “Top 5 Design Software” as the former would include a host of software that aren’t competitors (e.g. productivity tools, cloud storage options).

🏢 Companies using this

• Across industries, rankings are used to help differentiate products and drive traffic.

  • Third-party sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Amazon, and IMDB compile long ranking lists of other people’s products and services.

  • Hotels, restaurants, and others in the service industry frequently showcase their rankings on Top 10 and Top 20 lists.

• Software companies frequently release their own rankings on their websites and blogs to differentiate themselves from the competition and drive SEO traffic. It’s unclear if any actively focus on making their rankings longer.

LinkedIn automation tool Evaboot publishes their ranking of the Top 35 automation tools - with their product unsurprisingly topping the ranking.

⚡ Steps to implement

• On your website and social media, compile ranking lists comparing your product or services to others in the same industry. You can also use these lists you make in your marketing collaterals, including sales decks.

  • Your ranking should include at least 20 positions (e.g. Top 20 software instead of Top 10 software) to make your customers like the top few products more.

  • If you want to emphasize the difference between items (e.g. to upsell your premium offering or to justify a larger price difference with a competitor), use a shorter ranking list. For example, if there’s a significant price difference between Product A and Product B, ranking them first and second on a Top 5 will make the price difference seem more justified than first and second on a Top 20 list.

• Similarly, when highlighting your position in rankings made by third parties, focus on lists you’ve ranked highly on where there are more entries. For example, publicize coming 4th in a ranking of 50 similar products more than you’d publicize coming 3rd in a ranking of 10 products.

• When selling products online, similarly build out larger bestseller lists - an item ranked second on a Top 50 ranking will be seen as more valuable than ranking second in a Top 5 list.

🔍 Study type

Lab and online experiments and a field experiment (at a cafe in a Chinese University).

📖 Research

The Rank Length Effect. Journal of Marketing Research (July 2024)

🏫 Researchers

• Vivian (Jieru) Xie. New York University - Shanghai

• Fengyan Cai. Shanghai Jiao Tong University

• Rajesh Bagchi. Virginia Tech

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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🎓 It took 3 of us 14 hours to accurately turn this 16 page research paper into this 3min insight. 

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